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I'm blogging for awareness for chronic illness and those who live with it on a daily basis. I'm hoping to bring awareness for myself and to educate others with illness or loved ones of someone who is ill.

Chronic Illness Challenge Day 4

My friends and family have reacted to my various diagnoses
differently it all really depends on who we’re talking about. But collectively
I would say that the general reaction is ‘sorry you’ve been diagnosed with an
incurable illness, but at least the doctors know how to maybe help you now’.
And even though I’m really trying to promote awareness of the illnesses that I
do have it’s a lot harder than it seems.

Most of my family treats me like a leper basically. It’s
like if they don’t acknowledge me then they can just play off all my problems.
I try to educate them simply to try and get them to at least vaguely understand
what goes on inside my body. I’m not asking them to be able to understand every
little thing I say. It would just be nice if they could understand the broader
parts of my illnesses.

If your family shuts you out or makes you feel like your
illnesses aren’t that important I understand how you feel. And how sometimes
they actually try to blame you for having chronic illnesses. Recently I have
been told that I wouldn’t have EDS if I ate differently and took more vitamins.
For all my fellow zebras out there, we know that that’s just simply untrue we
have bad collagen. It’s like regular people are held together by super glue.
And then wet spaghetti noodles and tape hold people with EDS together.

My friends on the other hand are much more open about my
illnesses. They try there hardest to understand what’s going on inside me. And
they know my limits of things I can and can’t do. And they know when to tell me
to stop pushing myself so hard.

Specifically my cousin is my biggest
advocate for my health. She grasps my illnesses at the same level as I do and
if I was unconscious for some reason, I feel extremely confident that she can
provide the doctors with enough information that they won’t accidentally kill me.
And having her able to understand what’s going on with me is like a weight
lifted off my shoulders.

I feel like everyone should have at least one or two people
that understand your illnesses as much as they can. I know it might sound like
a pain, especially if anyone else’s families are like mine but just have that
one person. You never know, having that one person that understands your
medical condition(s) could make a world of difference in an emergency
situation. I feel like having that one person is also extremely important if
you have drug allergies.

Hi everyone, I'm Kali. I know there are many people out there with illnesses exactly like mine and they might be looking for answers or a little insight and I want to try to help them. I know when I was looking for people out there with similar illnesses it was hard to do. Mainly because a lot of people with chronic illnesses like to just keep to themselves. But I feel like if I put myself out there that's one more person that's a little more educated and understanding.